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“Downton Abbey” Creator Dubbed “Rock Star” Among Movie Stars

Roger Friedman
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“Downton Abbey” Creator Dubbed “Rock Star” Among Movie Stars

So you get about a thousand people stuffed in the main ballroom of the Four Seasons Hotel in West Hollywood. Half of them are movie or TV stars, from Daniel Day Lewis to Jon Bon Jovi, from Sally Field to Anne Hathaway, and everyone wants to meet one guy only: Julian Fellowes, creator of “Downton Abbey.”

The occasion was the annual afternoon “tea” thrown by BAFTA/LA, once a sleepy get together and now the must-be-seen-at event of Golden Globe weekend. And really, getting through a room choked with celebrities from Jacqueline Bisset (herself looking like a rock star) to SAG president Ken Howard, as well as “Silver Linings Playbook” director David O. Russell, stars Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence, all the “Les Miz” gang including Hugh Jackman, Eddie Redmayne and director Tom Hooper, not to mention triple hyphenate Ben Affleck, and regal bearing famed actress (and director now too ) Diane Baker–is not easy.

But then, there’s Fellowes, with his wonderful wife, and “Downton Abbey” star Michelle Dockery (Mary Crawley), the heroine of the British TV soap opera. It’s not like Fellowes hasn’t been here before. “Downton” is largely informed by an Oscar nominated film directed by the late Robert Altman and written by Fellowes called “Gosford Park.” And Fellowes also wrote the recent HBO film, “The Girl,” starring Toby Jones and Sienna Miller as Alfred Hitchcock and Tippi Hedren.

And yet: everyone wants to talk to Fellowes. Actress Lorraine Toussaint and director Ava Duvernay (“Middle of Nowhere”) literally jump out of their seats as Fellowes nears them on a tour of the room. “Wait!” they cry. “Has anyone told you about your big following in the African American community?” Toussaint asks him. Fellowes is thrilled. “You’re a rock star,” Toussaint tells him.

At the same time, Sally Field and her 25 year old son Sam Greisman are glowing. “I’m in love with your show,” the double Oscar winner and “Lincoln” nominee announces.

And so it goes. Here are some “Downton” mini spoilers: Mary will have a new romance in Season 4 after surviving a tragedy. The actress who played Sybil wouldn’t come back, which is why she meets her demise in Season 3. Lady Edith, a manipulative little shrew, has “major” stories in Season 4.

And what of Lady Mary? Michelle Dockery is so lovely in person that you can’t stand it. She wins the female award for Gobsmacked Celebrity Who Can’t Believe the Fuss That’s Being Made over Them. (Christoph Waltz wins the male award.) Dockery has just finished a feature film, “Non Stop,” loaded with stars. But unlike some of her “Downton” colleagues, she’s smart enough to stay with the landmark show until it’s done.

I ask Fellowes if he ever thinks of “Upstairs Downstairs.” I suggest that if the Crawleys ever visit London they could socialize with the Bellamys, the fictitious family from that show.

“In fact,” Fellowes offers, “I almost killed off two Crawley cousins, Peter and James, on Titanic. But I couldn’t do it because the first Lady Bellamy went down with that ship. And it didn’t make any sense to do it.”

 

Tom Cruise Under Attack; “Jack Reacher” Falls at Box Office

Roger Friedman
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Tom Cruise Under Attack; “Jack Reacher” Falls at Box Office

Ton Cruise is having a bad, bad Sunday. He’s on the cover of both the New York Post and the New York Daily News– and it’s not for his current movie, “Jack Reacher.” Both papers are part of an organized publicity campaign surrounding a new book by Lawrence Wright about Scientology.

The book, called “Going Clear,” will be published later this week in the United States although publishers in several countries–starting with the United Kingdom–have cancelled it possibly because of legal fears or intimidation.

Reading reports of “Going Clear” today, I’m surprised that much of the Cruise information comes from other places–like from this column or from Maureen Orth’s groundbreaking story months ago in Vanity Fair about a young actress whom Scientology tried to match-make with Cruise.

Both papers detail the audition process in 2005 for new wives that led Katie Holmes to become the third Mrs. Cruise. I published numerous exclusive stories about all that in 2005, about Holmes’s “abduction” by Cruise, her cutting all ties to family and friends, and subsequent close monitoring by Scientology lackeys. Since the Wright book’s publisher, Knopf, refused to send me a copy of the book last week, and Wright wouldn’t talk to me, I have no idea about attributions. We’ll have to wait until the book actually comes out.

With Holmes “freed” and Cruise keeping a low profile, the timing of “Going Clear” is unfortunate. His movie “Jack Reacher” took a tumble this weekend, although it’s still made $72 million domestically. Frankly, he’s not bothering anyone. But his behavior over the last decade dogs him nonetheless.

Golden Globes: A Good TV Party, But Still a Hollywood Punch Line

Roger Friedman
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Tonight’s Golden Globes will be a big party on TV, and then several more parties in and around the Beverly Hilton Hotel. But make no mistake: the Hollywood Foreign Press Association remains a punch line in Hollywood despite a clueless article in Friday’s New York Times that tried to rehabilitate them.

The HFPA consists of 83 or 84 people, depending on whom you ask. Not all are foreign, and not all are actual ‘press.’ There is constant infighting among the active members, with massive bickering and politcking. As well, no one knows who among them have actually seen every movie and TV show of the past year.

Even though the HFPA was supposed to be for foreign journalists living in America, there are more than a few that are American but write for extremely obscure publications abroad. Ironically, more respected foreign journalists living in the U.S. who cover entertainment are not part of the HFPA at all.

The Times article made it seem like the HFPA is suddenly the darling of Hollywood. In truth, studio publicity departments despise the HFPA and a form of blackmail that includes constant underwriting by the studios for travel, dining, and gifts.. A studio publicist told me recently how one HFPA member, famous for shnorring, complained that the wine at one sponsored meal after a private screening of a new film wasn’t up to snuff.

The same HFPA member has been accused more than once of reselling tickets to movie premieres and the Golden Globes itself at huge mark ups. That member — whose credentials are a much discussed mystery– also turns up regularly at private Hollywood events, and even last night at a high priced ticketed charity dinner honoring Sean Penn’s work in Haiti (see separate item) with a very young, short skirted date.

Why does everyone put up with this? The simple answer is that the HFPA has become a maekting tool Frankenstein. The studios want the extra accolades in ads for their movies. NBC, the network that carries the Globes, wants a two hour show with lots of star power. The actors are happy to carry home a gold statue, especially if there’s no Oscar or Emmy on their resume for the year. The HFPA has become a monster since NBC started paying them millions every year to license the Golden Globes name.

But all is not so hunky dory, despite the Times’ assertions. First of all, the HFPA is locked in a losing legal battle with both Dick Clark Productions and NBC over who has rights to broadcast the show. Second, both NBC and Dick Clark have had it with the imperious behavior of the group’s odd leadership.

More: A fight occurred this past week over whether to allow an actor whom the HFPA president openly dislikes –capriciously but maybe for darker reasons– onto the broadcast. The network and the production company overrode the HFPA after huge backstage fighting. I will tell you more about that on Monday.

To make matters murkier, this year the money people who own the Hollywood Reporter, Guggenheim Partners, bought Dick Clark Productions. While Variety features a cover this week of an ad paid for the Globes show on NBC, the Reporter has a cover feature story, and eleven inside pages of positive coverage including an improbable double page photo spread of a dozen HFPA members that looks like a parody of Vanity Fair.

Even in the group there’s a feeling expressed by many members that Hollywood has been taken hostage by a group of people with a lot of demands. One of those is a requirement that each of the 84 receive four tickets from the studios to their after parties tonight. The studios capitulte evcen though they must negotiate with the HFPA over getting actual producers of nominated movies into the Globes ceremony.

Golden Globes Have Turned Watching Movies into Multi-MillionDollar Boondoggle

Roger Friedman
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Golden Globes Have Turned Watching Movies into Multi-MillionDollar Boondoggle

The Hollywood Foreign Press, armed with a $7 million a year licensing fee from NBC, have turned watching movies into an impressively big boondoggle. While critics groups from all over the country are able to evaluate the year’s best films basically for free, the HFPA spends and spends to come up with essentially the same results.

For example: according to the HFPA’s 2011 tax filing, they spent over $671,000 on travel that year. That’s despite the major movie studios flying them all over the world, putting them up at hotels, feeding and entertaining them. Not only that: in exchange for tickets to the Globes show,a studio publicist claims the main film festivals treat the members of the Globes to all kinds of perks. At the Toronto Film Festival, for example, there are the ever present cars with drivers, and signs on windshields that read “HFPA.”

The officers of the HFPA also get paid nice honorariums. In 2011, the six main officers divvied up around $200,000. The group claimed $21.3 million in net assets in 2011.

Of course, the HFPA has some painful expenses, too. A losing court fight with NBC and Dick Clark Productions in 2011 meant paying legal fees of $3.6 million to a top Hollywood law firm.

But all of their activities are tax fee. To keep their 501 (c) 3 status, the HFPA Foundation makes a pageant of donating more than a million dollars a year to various arts and film related charities. It’s not done quietly. The HFPA annually summons movie and TV stars to a big media-buzz lunch every summer to make this announcement–and get a chance as per their reputation for pictures of their members with the stars.

The group has some big, and odd, expenses too–over $96,000 a year to run its website, for example– not including a $44,000 salary to a board member listed as “I-T expert.” And around $620,000 in miscellaneous, non specified expenses.

And while the recent New York Times story made it seem like the HFPA was just a little group stuffed into a clubhouse in a bad neighborhood, the group is actually situated on N.Robertson Blvd in West Hollywood, a block or so from some of West Hollywood’s coolest movie industry restaurants like The Palm, Dan Tana’s, Craig’s, and Cecconi’s and some of the most coveted shopping in Los Angeles.

 

Sean Penn Celeb Dinner Raises $4 Mil for Haiti Relief

Roger Friedman
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Sean Penn Celeb Dinner Raises $4 Mil for Haiti Relief

If something funny had happened in the ballroom of the Montage Hotel Saturday night there might not be a way to make big budget Hollywood movies anymore.

While parties raged around town all night for new stars or up and comers the A list gathered at the Montage to help Sean Penn raise a whopping four million dollars for J/P HRO Haitian Relief Organization. Giorgio Armani underwrote the evening called “Sean Penn and Friends: Help Haiti at Home.”

Both Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam and Citizen Cope performed. Ben Stiller sent in a funny video. Former Senator Chris Dodd, Cong. Raul Ruiz, and former Haitian OM Jean Max Bellerive were honored.

And dining on small dinners but donating to Penn’s heartfelt cause: Richard Gere and wife Carey Lowell; Reese Witherspoon; Julia Roberts and Danny Moder; Julia’s long ago fiancee Kiefer Sutherland; Minne Driver, Kristen Davis, Jeremy Irons, Tim Robbins, Melanie Griffith, Leonardo Di Caprio, Eva Longoria, “Arbitrage” director Nick Jarecki, and, oddly, Mel Gibson. Harvey Weinstein arrived late from his studio’s cocktail party with Cablevision owner Jim Dolan, dressed nattily with a fedora. Si spotted Warner Bros. chief Jeff Robinov, producer Bill Pohlad, and restaurateur to the stars Michael Chow (much missed in NY).

Dodd, now the head of the MPAA, spoke passionately about Penn’s passionate interest in Haiti. Bryan Lourd, partner at CAA and leader in the Hollywood community, also reiterated Penn’s tireless efforts to rebuild the impoverished, earthquaked nation. “He practically lives there,” Lourd said.

Penn and his associates have become very clever, attaching their fundraising dinners for Haiti to awards show weekends and glitzy festivals. A portion of Saturday night’s proceeds also went to Hurricane Sandy relief on the East Coast. www.jphro.org

 

Justin Timberlake’s “Suit and Tie” Tonight at Midnight

Roger Friedman
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Justin Timberlake’s “Suit and Tie” Tonight at Midnight

Justin Timberlake is bringing annoying back. Following on the heel of Adele (“Skyfall”) and the Rolling Stones (“Doom and Gloom”), the former boy band star is releasing his new single via social network tonight at midnight. “Suit and Tie” is Timberlake’s first new solo single in about six years. An album will follow in two to three months.

Timberlake is coyly using Twitter and Tumblr to release little tidbits of information. Oddly, he’s not using MySpace, in which he invested heavily in the last year, as forum for this information. In all likelihood. “Suit and Tie” will be ready for paid download exclusively on iTunes at midnight.

I told you in September that Timberlake had been working on new music with producer Timberland. But also dropped this week is a new single from Bon Jovi called “Because We Can,” A new album from New Jersey’s favorite rock pop garage band is due in March. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0Z3nh-ah_k

And you have to give Bon Jovi credit. They’re still regularly putting out catchy new songs, with great melodies, vocals, and radio friendly, stadium solid instrumentals. That’s not so easy in 2013.

Exclusive: Spielberg Will Re-work “Robopocalypse” And Make It

Roger Friedman
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Exclusive: Spielberg Will Re-work “Robopocalypse” And Make It

Exclusive: Last night, despite the relatively freezing cold weather, the Hollywood gang managed to make the rounds at what seemed like dozens of parties along Sunset Blvd from Chateau Marmont to the Beverly Hills Hotel. (It’s funny how many fur jackets have started popping up even though it’s usually 80 degrees here!)

At the Beverly Hills Hotel–where Ben Affleck was being honored by Cinema for Peace and Justice for his work in the Eastern Congo–Steven Spielberg told me what happened with “Robopocalypse,” the film he was supposed to make that just got postponed. First of all, he’s not going to make another film instead. “I don’t have anything else,” Spielberg said. “I looked at Robopocalypse and realized it just needed a new script. We know now what the story should be, so we’ll rewrite the script. And make it.”

Meanwhile the lobby of the grand BHH was filled with musicians and others whom Affleck has worked with in his efforts to enlighten the world about the plight of Congo. Several celebrs showed up to help him out including two sensational actresses whom we don’t see enough of– our old friend Alfre Woodard and Thandie Newton.  The “Argo” director was still fielding kudos from his win Thursday night at the Critics Choice Awards for Best Director and Best Film.

Then over to Chateau Marmont for W Magazine’s annual Hollywood issue party. “Say it’s the party of the night,” joked host Lynn Hirshberg, but we didn’t need much prodding. We took the elevator to the sixth floor penthouse with Dev Patel and Freida Pinto–they’re still together and charming as ever some five years after “Slumdog Millionaire.” In Hollywood, that’s a lifetime. Lovely!

Remember the famous scene from the Marx Brothers’ ‘A Night at the Opera” where everyone’s stuffed into a small stateroom? Well, that’s what the W party is like every year and that’s what makes the W party so much fun. Bradley Cooper is cheek by jowl with Hayden Panitierre, and Helena Bonham Carter comes rolling with Homeland star Damien Lewis and his famous British actress wife Helen McCrory. Catherine Keener gets introduced to Christoph Waltz, and Eddie Redmayne is on the wide balcony surrounded by beautiful young things. Not too far away is Chelsea Handler with her boyfriend Andre Balazs, who owns the swanky Chateau, and so on. “On the Road” stars Kirsten Dunst and Garrett Hedlund look like a million bucks. And everyone is admiring the new issue of W which has amazing, edgy pictures of Hollywood stars by Juergen Teller.

Waiting for cars in front of the Chateau is always a little organized mayhem with tons of autograph hounds and paparrazzi planted just on the other side of the narrow, hilly street facing the valet stand. When “Django Unchained” star Christoph Waltz is spotted on our side, the gang from across the way starts chanting his name. When Waltz’s car pulls up, he suddenly darts over and signs as much as he can from “Django” and “Inglorious Basterds.” But he’s very careful, he tells me just before this, as I await my the return of my rental car.

“Someone actually handed me a copy of Hitler’s Mein Kampf the other day,” Waltz said, shaking his head. “And someone else wanted me to sign my name over a swastika.” Needless to say, he declined both opportunities.

 

“Girls”: Everyone Gets Naked on the Second Season

Roger Friedman
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“Girls”: Everyone Gets Naked on the Second Season

Everyone gets naked in the second season of “Girls,” which debuts this Sunday on HBO– according to our PAULA SCHWARTZ.

The “Girls” 2.0 premiere was Wednesday at N.Y.U.’s Skirball Center. The glitzy after-party was at Capitale in the Meatpacking district, where guests entered into the main ballroom by walking across a crossway that was designed to look like the Brooklyn Bridge.

Lena Dunham, who has a new sophisticated new pixie haircut that’s kind of like Anne Hathaway’s, wore a strapless black jumpsuit edged with white, and super-high spike heels. Hats off to Dunham, who’s secure enough in her body to wear an outfit that would make even a size 4 woman look like a dumpling.

Close by her side until midnight when they exited was her boyfriend Jack Antonoff, who heads rock group Fun, which is featured on the season two “Girls” soundtrack.

On the red carpet Dunham said the show would continue to “push the envelope,” a challenging proposition considering last season’s no holds-barred sex scenes. But after last night’s premiere screening we can report Dunham succeeded. It’s also no spoiler to mention that Dunham has a black boyfriend and the show opens with them having wild, noisy sex. Wonder if this is a response to last season’s critics gripping about the lack of black characters in the show.

There’s also an anal sex scene but I won’t spoil it for you. And co-star Alex Karpovsky has a nude scene as well.

Rita Wilson is a new cast edition as Marnie’s (Alison Williams) sarcastic and body-obsessed mother, who is having an affair with a caterer-waiter. Peter Scolari, who plays Hannah’s father, co-starred with Wilson’s husband Tom Hanks in their early underrated cult series”Bosom Buddies.” (The two team up again in the spring in Norah Ephron’s “Lucky Guy.”)

Everyone gets naked sooner in  “Girls.” Last season Scolari had a hilarious shower sex scene where we saw a body part of his we never expected we’d see.

I asked the 57 year-old-actor if his character gets naked again in Season two. He told me he turns up in the back half of this second season in episodes 7 through 10 and yes clothes come off.

“There’s another nudity scene that occurs for my character that’s pretty personal and a little unsettling that developed in the writing with Lena and executive producer Jenny Konner,” he said, “so what happens for Dad in this season is very meaningful to me.”

How so? “It’s a progression that I guess you could say of the state of psychic distress that is a hallmark of ‘Girls’ we see in her Dad, and I was very taken, in all seriousness, taken with that writing and that direction that Lena and Jenny Konner brought to me. I feel like a lucky old dog to be able to be a part of this youthful, sexy show,” he said. “I’ve never felt so not at work as I am at work making these episodes.”

Does it feel peculiar to do naked sex scenes at his age? “With all due modesty put aside, I’ve never been healthier or more available to do work. I didn’t know that, but I’m much healthier at 57 than I was at 47 or 37, so not peculiar. I feel some great timing is at work in my life, and I’m not making the timing. I’m just around.”

He introduced me his date Tracy Shayne, an actress, who he described as his “soon to be wife.”

I asked Shayne if she fell in love with Scolari after seeing him in the shower scene, which inspired endless chat room discussions about his penis.

“I fell in love with him many years before that,” Shayne said.

“Girls” cast members Zosia Mamet, Williams and Jemima Kirke–all daughters of famous people David Mamet, Brian Williams, and Simon Kirke– hung out late into the late.

They don’t seem to have any of the show’s boyfriend problems. Kirke, 27, who just had her second child, a son, last month, cuddled with husband Michael Mosberg at a banquette, While in another corner, Williams sat on long-time boyfriend College.Humor.com co-founder Ricky Van Veen’s lap.

Adele Will Perform “Skyfall” at Oscars, Not at Golden Globes

Roger Friedman
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Adele Will Perform “Skyfall” at Oscars, Not at Golden Globes

Just so we’re all on the same page: Adele will perform “Skyfall” on the Academy Awards show on February 24th– only. She will simply appear, but not sing, on Sunday’s Golden Globes.

I told you last week that the mega-hit British singer had to choose, and that she wouldn’t sacrifice her Oscar slot for the wonky Golden Globes. The Globes are to the Oscars as the American Music Awards are to the Grammys.

Adele, a source close to her says, will arrive in Los Angeles today and remain here through the next six weeks until the Oscar show. Since Adele will be here though the Grammy Awards on February 10th, it’s likely she will show up there and maybe sing “Set Fire to the Rain” – for which she was nominated this year.

It’s unknown at this point if Adele–with her new baby in tow–will take time to explore writing or recording a new album. Her “21” album remains a bestseller with over 10 million copies sold.

Meantime, the “Skyfall” theme was nominated yesterday officially for an Oscar. And it won the Critics Choice Awards.

Critics Choice: “Silver Linings,” “Argo,” “Lincoln”

Roger Friedman
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Critics Choice: “Silver Linings,” “Argo,” “Lincoln”

“Silver Linings Playbook,” “Argo,” and “Lincoln” were the big winners Thursday night at the 18th annual Critics Choice Awards. “SLP” won Best Ensemble, Best Comedy, Best Actor and Actress in a Comedy for Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence. “Silver Linings” expands today to wide release after playing consistently well on the backburner.

It also got an entry in the Oscar record book yesterday: it’s the first movie since “Reds” in 1982 to score Oscar nominations in every major category: Best Picture, Director, Actor, Actress, Supporting Actor, Supporting Actress, Screenplay, and Editing.

I’ve said repeatedly since seeing “SLP” at the Toronto Film Festival that this sly film was the one to beat, the only one with heart, and the only film of this season that leaves a lump in your throat. No one else picked it. The so called experts alternated between “Zero Dark Thirty” and the foreign film “Amour.”

But “SLP” got the main attention at the Critics Choice, while “Argo” won Best Picture and Best Director (Ben Affleck, who got a standing ovation). But “Argo” is not yielding acting awards. “Lincoln” picked up Best Actor for Daniel Day Lewis, and adapted screenplay for Tony Kushner. Anne Hathaway won Best Supporting Actress for “Les Miserables” and Quentin Tarantino earned Best Original Screenplay for “Django Unchained.”

Jessica Chastain, exhausted after flying across the country after performing in “The Heiress” on Broadway, was shivering in her seat just prior to the announcement of Best Actress. “Are you cold?” I asked. “I’m nervous,” she replied. Well she was wearing an off the shoulder gown. All was settled when Chastain’s name was called for “Zero Dark Thirty.” Now she flies back to New York this morning to play “The Heiress” tonight and twice tomorrow, then back to L.A. for the Golden Globes–where she and Lawrence will again split Best Actress for Drama and Comedy–and then back to New York on Monday. And this is all on commercial flights, mind you! Where is all that Hollywood glamour when you need it?

Meanwhile, we did have a great moment with Joaquin Phoenix. He and his “The Master” co-star Amy Adams sat together at a Weinstein Company table, where Phoenix was bright eyed, bushy tailed and happy to be in attendance. He looks ready for the Oscar race after his Best Actor nomination.

But it was Daniel Day Lewis who was the most nervous. He made a couple of trips to the rest room before the Best Actor category was called. DDL, as I like to call him, is not as confident as we are that he’s a shoo in for playing “Lincoln.” He told me that Denzel Washington is “very strong” and that “Bradley Cooper is a surprise” before we even knew who was going to be nominated. He won last night, even though he spaced out a little during his speech. DDL, who shares little of himself and is very shy, is human you know.

 

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